Earlier this week, I caught part of the segment on Glenn Beck’s radio show on his Obama Pee Pee eBay auction. In case you missed it, Beck created an Obama in Pee Pee “artwork” to tweak the Left and expose their hypocrisy regarding artistic license and freedom of speech. He auctioned it on eBay (all proceeds going to charity), but eBay pulled it before it ended.

The sight of a grown man trying to stuff a bobbing plastic doll into a jar of what he claims to be his own urine is a sad thing, but when that man is right-wing commentator Glenn Beck making a strange comment about freedom of speech combined with a hateful symbolic act against the President, it’s not surprising. Beck tweely titles his artwork Obama in Pee Pee (shown above), but let’s call it what it is—Piss Obama, a 35-years-too-late reply (sic) to Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, one of the landmark works of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s “culture wars” pitting conservatives versus liberals in the battle for artistic expression. Beck hopes to piss off liberals with this act, but what he might have actually achieved is firing the last shot (squirt?) of the culture wars, proving perhaps once and for all that those cruel days are over.

Actually, I think the sight of a grown man dressed up like a character from a Pepe Le Pew cartoon trying to stuff a bobbing plastic doll that looks like Barack Obama impersonating Buddy Christ from Kevin Smith’s Dogma into a jar of what Glenn explicitly said was not his own urine is extremely funny. But the sight of a grown man who completely misses the point of Beck’s satire, gleans hidden messages in Beck’s urine, befuddles himself trying to expose Beck’s diabolical motives, reacts pretty much as Glenn predicted… and somehow thinks Beck comes off as the fool in the exchange—now that’s hilarious.

I knew I was in for a hard slog midway through Duggan’s first sentence:

“… when that man is right-wing commentator Glenn Beck making a strange comment about freedom of speech combined with a hateful symbolic act against the President…”

Everybody knows who Beck is. Labeling him a “right-wing commentator” is just a lazy ploy to poison the well. And rather than explain why Beck made “… a strange comment about freedom of speech,” Duggan simply tells us what to think. Ten points from Slytherin.

Characterizing the Obama Pee Pee auction as “a hateful symbolic act against the President” is lazy and dishonest. How does Duggan know Beck’s motives are hateful? As Thomas Sowell explains: “It is amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic.” However, attributing bad motives is a useful Alinsky tactic to put opponents on the defensive.

Now a non-expert might say, “C’mon, the guy put a figure of the President in urine. Of course it’s hateful.” True. Someone who knows nothing about modern art could make that assumption. But Duggan’s expertise disqualifies him from such misunderstanding. Duggan knows Beck’s satire was in response to artwork depicting Obama as messiah; he discusses it in his second paragraph. But he suggests that Beck is only now responding to Serrano’s 1987 display to paint Beck as out of touch. (Presumably Duggan meant to say a 25-years–too-late reply: 2012-1987=25. Math)

But so what if Beck’s auction was in response to Serrano’s Piss Christ; how is that “too late?” Since when do responses to art have a “sell by” date? Serrano’s “art” doesn’t have an expiration date. Duggan’s description of his blog refutes his own point:

In this image-drenched world, the line between the visual arts and society is less distinct than ever before. The artists of today speak not only to present times but also engage in dialogue with the artists of the past, who both haunt us and challenge us to rise above the mundane. Picture This stands at the crossroads of the present, past, and future in art, taking a good look around at the landscape and what it means to us. In doing so, it aims to provide a roadmap for those interested in how looking at art leads to thinking about life (emphasis added).

Should art criticism of Rembrandt be characterized as a “350-years-too-late reply” to Rembrandt?

This sentence is a doozy:

“Beck hopes to piss off liberals with this act, but what he might have actually achieved is firing the last shot (squirt?) of the culture wars, proving perhaps once and for all that those cruel days are over.”

Does Duggan really think Beck’s eBay auction represents the Appomattox of the culture wars? Actually, he does. His oh-so-clever takeaway compares Beck to a Japanese soldier fighting decades after WWII ended, bringing his “35-years-too-late response” comment full circle. He probably thinks it’s a clever metaphor; actually it’s just a forced simile.

Bizarrely, Duggan finds a comical Obama doll in Pee Pee to be a hateful symbol, but thinks Serrano’s display of a crucifix—which for Christians represents the Lord of the universe—isn’t about religion at all. Huh?

In his rambling monologue, Beck calls forth the ghost not only of Serrano’s Piss Christ, but also that of Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary, perhaps the most controversial work of the mid-1990s. Beck missed only Robert Mapplethorpe to complete the set. But that omission is especially telling. Piss Christ (like Piss Obama as a response to The Truth) isn’t about religion; it’s about oppression and suffering—specifically the oppression and suffering of the LGBT community in America, both then and now. Serrano chose the medium of bodily fluid at a time when bodily fluids were synonymous with the death sentence of AIDS. Piss Christ wasn’t an attack on religion or religious imagery but rather a modern use of that imagery to depict a new type of suffering and appeal for a new type of understanding and acceptance. Mapplethorpe may have photographed homosexual life in the 80s, but Serrano photographed its spirit.

Good grief. Beck’s omission of Mapplethorpe’s sick photographs is “especially telling?” Beck didn’t mention Ansel Adams’ photographs or opine on the merits of the Designated Hitter Rule either. What pray tell is “especially telling” about this omission? I thought Chris Matthews was the Grandmaster of dog whistle detection, but Duggan can hear dog whistles in what Beck doesn’t say.

I believe that Beck’s stunt comes not in response to The Truth but rather to the truth of the last election about public opinion regarding homosexuality and, most significantly, same-sex marriage. Linda Hirshman’s Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution (How a Despised Minority Pushed Back, Beat Death, Found Love, and Changed America for Everyone) argues that the American LGBT movement’s reached a tipping point of public acceptance, literally a victory not just for them, but for all people of any type of difference. The days of “culture wars” pitting American against American based on our differences rather than uniting us on our common values and dreams are over (I hope).

I won’t go so far as to accuse Beck of timing his stunt to blunt the impact of Saturday’s Day Without Art marking the passing of so many LGBT artists over the years. Beck’s statement rambled in so many directions that a clear message is hard to untangle, but the dog whistle of recalling Piss Christ and the “culture wars” of the past clearly tries to sound the classic anti-gay alarm signal. Like Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who fought on for three decades after World War II ended, Beck’s fighting a war long over. Call it Obama in Pee Pee or Piss Obama, Beck’s odd foray into the art world serves only to remind us of a time and a mindset best remembered in its passing.

How generous of Duggan not to go so far as to accuse Beck of timing his stunt to blunt the impact of an LGBT day of remembrance. In the same spirit, I won’t go so far as to accuse Duggan of timing his article to blunt the impact of Advent, Hannukah and Pearl Harbor. And I’ll give him props for the mileage (and dog whistles) he gets from attributing bad motives to people he disagrees with. First Beck was being hateful to the President. Now we learn that he was actually gay bashing via secret signals that 99.9% of his followers missed. (Hmm, maybe there’s something to those rumors about Larry Sinclair, the “Down-Low Club” at Rev. Wright’s church, the “wedding ring” Obama wore at Harvard, Reggie Love, Kal Penn, “Frank,” composite “girlfriends,” and how he throws a baseball. Excellent investigative work, Bob!)

The only apparent good news for Duggan is that the culture wars are relics of the distant past (he seems confused about who were/are the aggressors), and that Beck is the last combatant for the losing side. For an obsolescent pantomime villain, Beck sure draws a lot of hostile ammo. As Andrew Breitbart said, “if you aren’t drawing enemy fire, it’s because you’re not over the target.”

Personally I have no idea why Serrano put a crucifix in a jar of urine. Why did van Gogh cut off his ear? But unless Serrano was totally clueless, he had to know that millions would find his work blasphemous.

Yesterday I read about a Swedish artist with a German surname who uses ashes of incinerated Holocaust victims as the medium for his drawings. Perhaps this chap would say he intended no disrespect to the victims’ families, but “chose the medium of [dead Jewish remains to highlight] the suffering and oppression of the [neo-Nazi] community” and “appeal for a new type of understanding and acceptance.” Thankfully, most of us reject such sophistry and find his so-called art reprehensible and obscene. By what criteria does Duggan distinguish hateful Holocaust and Obama-in-Pee-Pee art from legitimate Jesus-in-urine art? Once universally-recognized lines of decency are crossed, lines are blurred, redrawn and erased again and again until as Dostoyevsky famously predicted, “everything is permitted.”

If Beck’s Obama in Pee Pee parody is hateful toward the President, then it follows a fortiori that Serrano’s display was hateful toward Christianity. It’s hard to see how one can rationally believe otherwise. However for Duggan, an image of Obama in fake urine is hateful, but an image of the Son of God in the real thing is perfectly fine. Even if Duggan was consistent, that still wouldn’t make his belief about Beck reasonable. He fails to consider the more likely explanation that Beck was mocking any or all of the following: Serrano, D’Antuono and/or Obama idolatry generally. Context matters. D’Antuono’s work and the Obama idolatry that inspired it provide the context to understand Beck’s parody. But Beck’s stunt remains an insoluble riddle for someone like Duggan who thinks the last election was about… (wait for it) … “public opinion about homosexuality and … same sex marriage.”

Single-issue voters find it hard to understand those who don’t share their singular focus. This may explain why Duggan never quite manages to understand Glenn’s point. It isn’t terribly complicated. Glenn sought to expose the hypocrisy of the Left re: “controversial” shock art. By creating an obviously satirical work of art that offends liberals, Beck reveals the Left’s feigned fidelity to artistic integrity and freedom of speech as a sham.

If you want to celebrate blasphemous and sacrilegious images, fine, knock yourself out. But don’t pretend you’re taking a principled stand by labeling literal excrement “art.” And please no more double-standards re: free speech. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech to offensive speech from all sides, including critics of the offensive speech liberals deem sacrosanct. But the Orwellian Left wants it both ways. They want blanket protection for obscenity they label “art”, and attempt to censor opposing viewpoints they label “censorship,” “racist” or “offensive.” Their real principle is “free speech for themselves, but not for others.”

Their hypocritical façade is exposed when a controversial work offends them. When normal people are offended by Piss Christ or Mapplethorpe’s graphic photos, the Left is ecstatic. But if a truly counter-cultural artist insults one of the Left’s sacred cows—or the “Religion of Peace” that stones women and executes homosexuals (somebody please explain that to me)—then the Tolerance mask slips, revealing their true Totalitarian face.

Putting a crucifix in urine or smearing feces on Christian iconography isn’t art; it’s defecating on art. An infant’s soiled diaper isn’t art no matter how closely the diaper stains resemble the work of Jackson Pollock. Piss Christ, smearing elephant dung on an icon of Madonna, etc. are to real art what the heckler’s veto is to free speech.

******

In fairness, I shouldn’t knock Piss Christ because it inspired what might have been my greatest artistic triumph. During Serrano’s fifteen minutes of fame, I told my friends the following story. I tried to keep a straight face, but I suspect they knew I was being facetious. My so-called artist career could have gone like this:

I told my friends that I had submitted a mason jar filled solely with my own urine to the GuggenheimMuseum, only to see my beautiful work of art rejected. For whatever reason, those pretentious white museum curators ignored the challenges I overcame to produce my masterwork. First, I had to consume more beer than the Surgeon General or State Trooper sobriety tests recommend—but alas we must suffer for our art. Second, much of my “work” never made it to the canvas, as my inebriated state impaired not only my driving ability, but also my usual pinpoint accuracy.

I took small comfort in knowing that my work’s rejection had nothing to do with its artistic value. Critics conceded that it showed tremendous originality and potential. They appreciated how the amber hues I produced—derived from a carefully nuanced mix of dark and light brews—refracted different kinds of light. No, the power-brokers of the art world decreed that—for reasons having nothing to do with art—my precious sola urine jar would never be displayed alongside similar masterpieces by giants named Mapplethorpe, Ofili, Pollock and Serrano.

Here in this image-drenched world, the line between a doll in a jar of Pee Pee and a crucifix in a 25-year-old jar of urine may be less distinct than ever before, but hypocrisy, double standards and incoherence are on full display.

I tried to find a silver lining. I tried to be philosophical about what happened.

I know that God is in charge—not Obama. I know that God draws straight with crooked lines… and if He needs a crooked line to work with, He sure found one in Obama. I know that God’s justice is perfect; and if we are being punished for our sinfulness and for abandoning God, then so be it. I don’t really think He’s punishing us, but perhaps leaving us to our own devices (with Obama in charge, Lord help us!) is how a merciful and loving Father reminds us that we desperately need Him. And secretly (well not really a secret), I’m hoping He’s fed up with Obama’s pride and blasphemy, and is setting him up for the biggest fall since Humpty Dumpty.

I want to believe that the hand of Divine Providence is guiding us in spite of ourselves and that these struggles will produce a greater good. Romans 5:3–5

But today I haven’t been in much of a philosophical or religious mood. I’m not quite ready to hear the better angels of my nature.

I’m livid.

I thought of Ronald Reagan’s quote yesterday: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” And I’m livid that I am part of the generation that actively worked to extinguish freedom.

Yesterday’s result confirms Mencken’s observation in 1916: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” The only consolation re: yesterday’s obamanation is that the fools who voted for it will get what they richly deserve, and it will be all the worse for them because they can’t see what’s coming whereas we can see and prepare.

Mencken also said, “There are times when every man must be tempted to spit on his hands, hoist a black flag, and begin slitting throats.” That’s how I feel today. Call me Bad Mencken. At least my expression when I saw Obama supporters let even the dimmest among them know to give me a wide berth today.

Consider this missive a first draft on my enemies list—I didn’t have an enemies list until this morning. Should I worry that I found compiling an enemies list therapeutic? But since the President has an enemies list—and a kill list—and he won the Nobel Peace Prize, I figure I deserve a little something, you know, for the effort.

Message to Certain Segments of the U.S. Electorate:

To African American voters who voted with the 99%:

[Disclaimer: This is not directed to every African-American voting for Obama. I’m sure there are many of you who honestly think he’s doing a great job considering the bad hand he was dealt. They may be misinformed, but are not racist. No, this is directed to those who know perfectly well that he’s ruining the country, but take perverse joy in “sticking it to THE MAN” so to speak.]

You are the same fools who cheered when OJ was found not guilty, and for the same reasons. This election was your OJ verdict writ large, a middle finger salute to middle America. Enjoy your brief Reginald Denny moment. Cheering OJ’s acquittal was a safe eff you victory lap; after all OJ wasn’t likely to go on a killing spree in (or even be seen anywhere near) your neighborhoods after getting off scot free. This time you will reap what you sowed: even higher unemployment than the double-the-national-average you currently enjoy courtesy of Barack, more dependency on the federal government, higher gas and food prices (which disproportionately hurt the poor who must pay a higher share of their income on these things). Oh and guess what, you’re still poor after a nearly 50-year long “War on Poverty” and significantly poorer if you live in states run by Democrats you keep voting for.

Does it make you feel proud voting for a president who supports Planned Parenthood 100%? An organization whose founder Margaret Sanger enthusiastically promoted abortion as an instrument to reduce the black population (but opposed abortion for whites). But thanks to progressives, at least you have a great public education system so your children and grandchildren won’t have to face multi-generational poverty. Oh wait.

To seniors who voted for Obama because they feared Romney would end Medicare as we know it:

You fools! Don’t you know what will end Medicare as we know it? Answer: Medicare as we know it. The program is unsustainable and known to be so for many years. Don’t you know that unsustainable means it will collapse all on its own unless we come up with a plan to save it. What’s Obama’s plan? As Obama’s Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geitner said to Congressman Paul Ryan: “We don’t have a plan, but we know we don’t like yours.”

You voted for the guy who gutted Medicare (which you paid into) to expand Medicaid (to redistribute healthcare services to those who didn’t pay). You voted for ObamaCare, which will lead to rationing, make health insurance even more unaffordable, while driving more doctors and health professionals out of the market, requiring even more rationing. Guess who’ll be first on the list to be denied necessary medical care. Congratulations! Soon you’ll get to pay the ultimate stupid tax.

You voted for the party that raised FICA/SS taxes to keep Medicare and Social Security solvent then looted the “lock box,” replacing our money with worthless government IOUs. Recall the scene in Dumb and Dumber when the suitcase with the randsom money is opened and found to contain no currency, but lots of IOU’s. You’re voting for those guys, difference being this time the suitcase contains $16 trillion in IOU’s, and you voted for… more IOU’s. But at least you won’t be lonely in your retirement, with your adult “children” living in the basement to keep you company… and using your utilities, eating your food and contributing nothing toward household expenses.

And at least you’re getting a decent interest rate on your savings to supplement your measly Social Security checks, thank to Obama’s and the current Fed’s policies. Oops, my bad.

To the so-called “War on women” voters:

Remember when you used to boast “We’ve come a long way baby!” Now you have reproductive rights in lieu of babies and seem determined to prove what a recipe for disaster the suffrage movement was. Congratulations! Every time there’s an election between a decent honorable man and a worthless lying POS, a majority of you ALWAYS vote for the POS. Every $^*^ time! Even a laboratory rat learns to avoid those parts of the maze where they get zapped with electricity, but so-called feminists NEVER learn. You voted overwhelming for Ted Kennedy six times after he left Mary Jo Kopechne to die from asphyxiation while he went to sober up get help. You voted for the rapist Bill Clinton. You voted for Anthony Weiner and you would vote for Anthony Weiner’s weiner.

You voted to protect your precious “constitutional” right to kill your unborn child. You voted for a president who opposed a law to protect babies who survive abortion attempts. You voted for a president who supports abortion rights absolutely without exceptions, when the leading reason for abortion worldwide is sex-selection. Can’t have too many girls being born, and you support this perverse and barbaric form of gendercide.

You voted for this disaster because of a risible fictitious “war on women” that insulted your intelligence, but somehow you weren’t insulted. Meanwhile you ignore the actual war on women that’s taking place in the Islamist world. That real war on women is going to get uglier thanks to this president who gives support to Islamist extremists who promote Sharia law, which means honor killings, legalized rape, sex slavery for millions of women and de facto slavery for all women forced to live under Sharia. Their blood should be on your hands, but you couldn’t care less. It profits a man nothing to sell his sold for the world, and you sold yours for thirty pills a month.

To the “mainstream” media:

Congratulations! Your deceitful and malevolent campaign to accelerate the destruction of America worked beyond your wildest dreams. You manufactured this year’s October Surprise in the form of a September, October and November suppression of the shameful betrayal of Americans in Benghazi. Once reporters competed with one another to see who could uncover the next Watergate story. Now you conspire in AOL chat rooms to ensure that inconvenient stories about Democrats never see the light of day. And we still haven’t forgotten your endless stories about that 30-year-old National Guard letter to discredit Bush, a letter that was as obviously fake as Obama’s online birth certificate. Speaking of which, you mock those who raise questions about the president’s shady past as “birthers,” seemingly oblivious to the fact the original list of “birthers” includes Obama himself (who started the idea by telling people he was born in Kenya), Obama’s publisher, Obama’s grandmother, and Hillary Clinton who first raised the eligibility issue in the 2008 primary.

You’ve been hemorrhaging readers and viewers and losing advertisers and advertising revenue due to your obvious bias and contempt for truth, indeed contempt for all traditional values. But instead of doing the respectable and honorable work that journalists once did, you double down on lies and propaganda and join JournoList groups to ensure group think and no deviation from the approved (Democrat) party line.

You’ve gone from publishing daily to just a few times a week to publishing online only, You’ve cut salaries, staff and office space and you’re still going broke. You mock Rush Limbaugh who has an audience of 30 million and Fox News which has more viewers than all other cable news networks combined. By the way did you know that Rush earns more money per year than all newspapers make combined? But then again, so do I.

To 68% of young voters:

Truly you are the biggest losers. How much does a college education cost these days? Good thing the colleges are doing their best to keep skyrocketing education costs down, unlike those greedy Oil Companies that gave us $1.83/gallon gas under evil Bush. But of course, it’s tough having a car when you can’t get even an entry level job with just a bachelor’s degree. So here’s a thought: while you spend the next ten years or so waiting for the economy to recover after the next round of StimuLESS (Thank you sir, may I have another?), maybe you can double down on your investment by getting a masters degree, in say puppetry like that OWS guy who for some reason couldn’t find a job. Guess the really good puppetry jobs require a Ph.D.

So by the time you finally graduate—when you’re 30 or so—you’ll owe $500K or more but can’t find work. Did you know that you can’t discharge student loans in bankruptcy and if the banks forgive part of the debt, it’s considered income? Lucky you! Good thing your parents let you live in the basement and eat for free, assuming your parents still have homes that aren’t in foreclosure.

Of course I’m exaggerating when I say you can’t find work; many of you have excellent part-time jobs at McDonald’s, Game Stop or Blockbuster (until the recent layoffs—bummer). The good news is things are so bad all around, the fact that you get to live and eat free and contribute nothing to your parent’s household bills means you likely have more disposable income than your parents!

But don’t worry about your student loan debts. When If you miss a payment, you can get your parents to co-sign the paperwork and the government will deduct a certain amount from your parents’ Social Security checks. Isn’t life grand when you’re (barely) young, (over)educated and totally dependent on your parents’ charity? But hey, your President never grew up and look where he ended up, so the same plan could work for you. And if it doesn’t, you can do as he does and blame Bush.

It’s a partial enemies list. I left out government parasites workers, union thugs, Hollywood/other “celebrity freaks” and above all Democrat and duplicitous RINO politicians from New Jersey. Unfortunately I can’t say what I really think of them in words not beginning with the letter F. Suffice to say you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious!

Did CNN’s Candy Crowley collude with the Obama campaign before last night’s debate in Hempstead?

I think so, and I think I can prove it.

Let’s restate the obvious:

For this Town Hall format debate, alleged undecided voters submitted questions to the candidates. As moderator, Crowley selected which questions would be asked. Her selections were curious to say the least; they appeared designed to highlight issues helpful to the incumbent and embarrass the challenger. For instance, one audience member asked a question about “equal pay” for women. The premise of the question is bogus, but pointing out its deficiencies can only hurt the side inclined to tell the truth. Crowley repeated the tired assertion that women receive 72% pay for “the same work” as men.

Where to begin? Hasn’t the percentage of the disparity changed since the feminists first made this claim? Crowley repeated a number dating back to the 70’s. It was bogus then, and bogus now. If the premise is true, then it must also be true that employers are paying men nearly 40% more than necessary for the same work. Most businesses operate on much tigther profit margins than this, so any employer with a grain of common sense would hire employees willing to work for 72% of what their costly male counterparts demand. Mitt opted not to challenge the premise of the question. I went to the kitchen to make a sandwich rather than find out which candidate gave the better vapid answer.

I loved the most obviously slanted “question.” Paraphrasing for brevity, the “questioner” prefaced with an editorial: while he was disappointed with the last four years, he blamed George W. Bush for most of our problems. “So please tell us Governor Romney, how your policies would differ from those of George Bush?” Classic heads-we-win/tails-you-lose trick question for the challenger forcing him to choose between defending Bush (so Obama could run against Bush again) or discrediting the 44th President. I think Romney should have challenged the premise of the question and turned it on Obama, e.g., “The President always talks of failed Bush policies of the previous eight years, but doesn’t specify which ones? Does he mean the failed $1.83 per gallon gasoline prices or the 4.7% unemployment we had before the Democrats took over Congress and caused Fannie and Freddy to trigger the 2007 financial crisis?

Throughout the evening, Crowly kept challenging Romney on his answers, and thanking Obama for his.

Obama was much better prepared this time, kept his talking points straight with no signifcant flubs. In fact, he seemed a little too prepared, uncharacteristically so without his teleprompter in my opinion. I began to smell a rat.

Actually, I began to smell a rat before the debate started when it was announced that the questions were not disclosed to either campaign. I was reminded of how I cringe when I hear an inexperienced magician say “I have here a perfectly normal deck of cards.” Normal people don’t go around making disclaimers before they are challenged. Try this experiment: next time you play cards for money, announce to the table “I have here a perfectly normal deck of cards” as you introduce a new deck when it’s your turn to deal. Media moderators give disclaimers for the same reasons magicians say they’re using a perfectly ordinary deck of cards. Usually the magicians who say this are lying.

Midway through the debate, I saw the proof.

Toward the end of the debate, finally we heard a good question about the Benghazi attack that left four Americans dead, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens. The questioner asked about reports that the State Department denied Embassy requests for additional security. He wanted to know if that was true and if so, why? Obama dodged the question and Romney, who’s much quicker on his feet than the President, didn’t call him on it. Not because he missed the point, but because why flick a jab when you can go for the knockout. And to everyone watching, Obama had left his glass jaw wide open by making the ludicrous claim that he correctly called the attack on the embassy an act of terrorism the very next day.

An incredulous Romney challenged him, but Obama stuck to his preposterous claim. When Romney asked him to repeat what he just said, Obama turned to Crowley, who confirmed that Obama was right. Suddenly the knockout punch missed wildly and Obama scored a telling counterpunch.

Except he didn’t. The counterpunch was a cheapshot, delivered not by the limp-wristed flyweight, but by the super-heavyweight referee. Before an audience of 70 million, Crowley said to Romney, “He’s right. That’s what he said.” Except, in the immortal words of Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, Obama never actually said what Crowley insisted he said. Afterwards, before an slightly smaller audience (400K vs. 70 million), Yogi Crowley admitted she’d “made a wrong mistake.”

The whole thing was a set-up, and one that Obama could not have pulled off without collusion on the part of Crowley. Obama’s unmemorable comments the day after the Ambassador’s murder included a throwaway line that “acts of terror will not go unpunished.” He never said the embassy attack was a terrorist act. Indeed, it defies logic and common sense to claim he would have done so one day after the incident, and then spend several weeks, blaming the attack on a silly internet movie trailer. (This from an administration that three years later still won’t concede that the Camp Hood massacre was a terrorist act even though Maj. Hasan shouted “Allah Akhbar” as the shooting began.)

When Crowley affirmed Obama’s deception, some members of the audience applauded—in violation of the house no applause rule. Who broke the rules? Michelle Obama and members of the media.

Think about this. Crowley just happened to have the transcript of a perfunctory Obama speech that was about as memorable as a typical Soviet apparatchik’s glowing paen to the architects of the latest five-year plan. In the Soviet Union, such speeches were worth saving—to line birdcages. Yet somehow Crowley just happened to bring a copy of the same speech Obama misleadingly quoted in response to a question he wasn’t given in advance. And Crowley already had highlighted the selective quote, as if it was somehow important.

The setup was interesting. While Romney looked as stunned as everyone else who’s been following the story and challenged the statement, Obama, looking like the proverbial cat who ate the canary, calmly replied, “Proceed Governor.” Understandably, the exchange left Romney speechless. For Obama to claim that he correctly called the attack a terrorist act from day one wasn’t a mistake or “spin,” it was a shockingly brazen reality-denying Orwellian Big Lie. To anyone who followed the news, it was utterly preposterous to suggest he told the truth when his entire Administration spent weeks knowingly and falsely blaming the attack on a silly video—including Obama himself in a speech to the United Nations—when the Aministration already knew the video story was a lie.

And then like an amateur magician reaching into his top hat, Obama asked Crowley to pull the transcript. Huh? By a remarkable “coincidence” Crowley just happened to have the transcript of Obama’s September 12 Rose Garden speech right in front of her, with the relevant quote highlighted. And she said that Obama was right.

Riiigghhht!!!

How could Obama KNOW that Crowley would have the transcript ready to refute Romney when he pounced on what was an obvious lie?

Equally curious, how did Crowley immediately produced the precise sentence in question when Obama asked for the transcript? Have you ever heard a talk show host ask a producer for a tape and the producer has trouble locating it? It happens all the time … even though radio shows prepare these things in advance. Yet last night, Obama referenced one of his hundreds of unmemorable speeches, and the moderator not only had the transcript with her, she had the line Obama cited already queued up to make Romney look bad.

If that isn’t evidence of collusion, what more proof do we need?

And like the amateur he is, Obama made Candy repeat herself “a little louder this time.” (“You never saw me go near the deck of cards right?”) And the intrepid journalist obediently wagged her tail and stood up on her hind legs on command. I was disappointed Obama did not give her a puppy treat; she definitely earned one.

On a related note, a friend asked: Is CNN’s Candy Crowley related to Satanist Aleister Crowley?

Meet the Roberts electric car. Built in 1896, it gets a solid 40 miles to the charge — exactly the mileage Chevrolet advertises for the Volt — the much-touted $31,645 electric car General Motors CEO Dan Akerson called “not a step forward, but a leap forward.”

I disagree with the comments critical over the lack of progress in 115 years. I see the $40K Volt’s equalling the 1896 Roberts’ performance as a notable achievement. That the Volt’s designers could match the accomplishments of a sane, civilized age whose industry wasn’t shackled and hamstrung at every turn by myriad inane and onerous government regulations & mandates surely ought to qualify the Volt as one of the great marvels of 21st century Marxist/progressive engineering.

After all, most of us assumed that zero & his Marxist friends and their Islamist allies were trying to roll us back to a 7th century standard of living. An 1896 living standard w/b a huge improvement. Personally I wouldn’t mind going back to an era when we had no federal income tax, no FICA, no IRS, no DOE, no EPA, no CMS, no Federal Reserve, no fiat currency, real gold and silver coins, no Obamacare, no War on Drugs, no Sarbanes Oxley, no suffrage, no designated hitter rule, no free agency, no juiced baseball, McKinley in the White House, and the phrase “gay 90s” meant something positive.

On the flip side, they didn’t have a space program back then, but then we don’t have one now either. At least the 1896’ers weren’t spending billions on a NASA whose primary mission is . . . raising Muslim self-esteem?!?

Yes, much better to live in the good old days when children worked in the coal mines and life was a beautiful thing.

State officials are poring over the Obama administration’s 961-page health care package to estimate its effect on Ohio’s perennial budget-buster, Medicaid costs. The math is understandably complex, and Ohio’s tab isn’t yet known.

But this is: The two-bill measure may add about 550,000 Medicaid clients to Ohio’s caseload over the next few years. Such an increase would blimp Ohio’s current Medicaid caseload, about 2.1 million people, by more than 25 percent. The congressional measures will make an estimated 275,000 more Ohioans eligible for Medicaid.

. . .

Because the federal health care legislation also will boost public awareness of Medicaid eligibility in general, Ohio analysts estimate that about 279,000 Ohioans — already eligible for Medicaid, but for whatever reason not currently participants — may sign up. For those already eligible Ohioans, however, the federal share of Medicaid costs will be the same as it is now — 63.4 percent. That means Ohio’s budget will have to muster 37 cents for every $1 spent in patient costs.

[ObamaCare] massively expands access to Medicaid, another bankrupt entitlement program largely responsible for the financial crises in many states. Think about this. While the government is cutting Medicare (which our parents and grandparents PAID FOR), it is expanding Medicaid. In other words, it’s taking away health benefits from seniors who paid for them while providing care for those who didn’t.

Needless to say, this predicted Medicaid expansion will force state governments to increase healthcare spending at a time when state budgets are about to implode thanks to European-style retirement benefits. I likened this massive increase in government spending during a severe recession to a person facing bankruptcy splurging on a brand new Rolls Royce.

However, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer editorial reaches a startlingly different conclusion:

An ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure. That’s why it’s reasonable to believe that Medicaid expansion may, in the long run, make less steep the seemingly perpetual upward curve in Ohio’s Medicaid costs. Still, the expansion approved by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama presents yet another long-term challenge to an Ohio budget facing plenty of hurdles already.

Yes, and it’s equally reasonable to believe this Medicaid expansion will increase the state’s supply of rainbows and unicorns for Ohio’s children. Safe bet the Plain-Dealer editorial board writers are donkeys.

Believe it or not, this is an actual product and is only $14.95! You may need this if you want to calculate your share of healthcare “reform” “savings” (or just to do your taxes after hyper-inflation hits).

PROBLEM
Finding a calculator with enough digits to perform simple math on the spending and stimulus packages coming from the Obama administration.

Have you found yourself trying to visually quantify the amount of money being proposed and spent in Washington? The Obama administration takes no shame in using the term trillions where most Americans were shocked when the term billions were used in recent years.

Look around your home or office for a calculator with enough digits for a trillion dollars. You’ll find standard calculators from school or office supply stores with 8, 10, or 12 digits. A trillion dollars is $1,000,000,000,000 (12 zeros) and requires a 13 digit calculator.

SOLUTION
The Obama Spendulus Calculator has 14 digits; enough digits for $99,999,999,999,999. That’s one dollar short of 100 trillion dollars.

The Obama Spendulus Calculator is a full featured calculator with large keys and an easy to read display. With 14 digits, it can handle the spending and stimulus packages coming from Washington.

Looking for an edge in the global war for tourism dollars, US President Barack Obama Thursday signed into law moves to attract more overseas travelers (emphasis added).

Interesting way of putting it. One could argue that he’s already done much to attract “tourists” from places like Nigeria, Sudan and the Middle East, especially ones with names like Mohammed Atta and Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab. The terror issue aside, it appears TOTUS is getting economic advice from Castro.

Obama signed the act “which establishes a corporation for travel promotion to encourage international travel to the United States,” the White House said in a statement.

The effort is to be funded through a matching program featuring up to 100 million dollars in private sector contributions and a 10-dollar fee on foreign travelers who do not pay for a visa, with no money from US taxpayers (emphasis added).

Just what we need, a new quasi-governmental agency to regulate tourism. Note too, which countries travelers will foot the bill.

But critics said the fees imposed on travelers from visa-waiver countries, mostly in Europe, could deter some would-be tourists (emphasis added).

From the Wikipedia link above, this snippet gives you an idea how well Cuba’s state-run tourism industry operates:

Until 1997, contacts between tourists and Cubans were de facto outlawed by the Communist regime.[2][3] Following the collapse of Cuba’s chief trading partner the Soviet Union, and the resulting economic crisis known as the Special Period, Cuba’s government embarked on a major program to restore old hotels, remaining old pre-communism American cars, and restore several Havana streets to their former glory, as well as build beach resorts to bolster the tourist industry in order to bring in much needed finance to the island. To ensure the isolation of international tourism from the state isolated Cuban society, it was to be promoted in enclave resorts where, as much as possible, tourists would be segregated from Cuban society, referred to as “enclave tourism” and “tourism apartheid”.[4] Until 2008 Cubans were not allowed to enter such tourist only stores, hotels, restaurants, beaches, etc. By the late 1990s, tourism surpassed Cuba’s traditional export industry, sugar, as the nation’s leading source of revenue. Visitors come primarily from Canada and eastern Europe and tourist areas are highly concentrated around Varadero Beach, Cayo Coco, the beach areas north of Holguin, and Havana. The impact on Cuba’s socialist society and economy has been significant. However, in recent years Cuba’s tourism has decreased due to the economic recession, escalating foreign investment conflicts and fears, and internal economic restrictions. Since its reopening to tourism in the mid 1990s Cuba has not met the projected growth, has had relatively little restoration, and slow growth due in major part to the fact that many foreigners don’t feel secure investing in Cuba under its current regime and Cubans are still forbidden by the state from owning private property or participate in any development. Since then, the Dominican Republic has surpassed Cuba in tourism, new development, and investment.[5]

One wonders if the legislation will include the construction of foreigners-only resorts here in the U.S. followed by rafts going the other way.

Update (March 9, 2010): Just when you think things can’t get crazier, he does this:

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

First I’ve heard of this, yet apparently “the time for debate is over.”

Another idea borrowed from Castro. In an island blessed with ideal climate year-round for agriculture and a plentiful supply of fish in the surrounding Carribean and Atlantic waters, the average Cuban “citizen” is not permitted to fish in Cuban waters (The Cuban Cuban Coast Guard shoots at “unauthorized” vessels on sight.) Instead, most Cubans are forced to subsist on meagre food rations the government deems sufficient.